A word from the president

Defence, caring and support
in 100% human mode!

When people ask me why I devote so much energy to my position as president of the FFARIQ, my answer comes straight from my heart: because I am a foster family and I know what that means. Foster family with many children, I know that means enormous tasks and responsibilities, availability at any moment, difficult situations to deal with, sensitive emotions, all this through the often suspicious glance of government authorities who care more about children, but much less about the families that welcome them.

Quebec’s foster families are unanimous: the scope of their work and the difficulties they face on a daily basis are not well known and not much considered, even by government agencies. We must fight continuously to ensure that the families who help are helped as well and have access to support services so that the children they take under their wings can develop healthily and dream of a better future.

Fortunately, FFARIQ exist. A federation born 45 years ago, respected and recognized for being the one that makes legal and financial progress thanks to three things: its credibility, its knowledge of what is happening on the ground and its representativeness because it is the largest group of foster families in Quebec.

For foster families, our knowledge of what they are experiencing changes everything, because we are in action mode rather than in reaction mode. We are changing laws and alleviating rules, certainly, by means of claims, but on a daily basis, we keep our focus on the real needs of families, their immediate and dearly needs, and we often find solutions. Our regional offices are full of kindness, and our committees made up of people who are foster families, are the most humane.

It is often said that strength comes from numbers. This is true, because 2,500 host families can only have weight, but at FFARIQ there is not only strength in numbers. There is also the strength of will and compassion, the strength of an organization that has accompanied and supported foster families for 45 years.

The FFARIQ is the large family of foster family in Quebec.

Geneviève Rioux, présidente provinciale de la FFARIQ